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Iraq invasion: 10 years later

When the last U.S. troops left Iraq in Dec. 2011, the "Operation Iraqi Freedom" combat mission came to an end. On March 19, a decade after U.S. troops were first deployed to Iraq, we look back at the soldiers, civilians and communities affected by the prolonged conflict.
In this photograph, Iraqi families leave Basra in southern Iraq, across one of the town's bridges manned by British soldiers. Iraq warned it would use all means, including suicide attacks, to stop the coalition's advance on Baghdad, as U.S. and British war planes pounded the capital and the southern city of Basra, March 30, 2003.

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U.S. Marines climb up to topple a statue of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in al-Fardous square in Baghdad, April 9, 2003.

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Iraqi men push the head of a statue of Saddam Hussein after its destruction in Baghdad, April 18, 2003.

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Pararescuemen from the 301st Rescue Squadron perform a high-altitude, low-opening jump over Tallil Air Base, north of Nasiriya, Iraq, May 1, 2003.

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Shortly after U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein near his hometown of Tikrit, a man in New York City reads a newspaper with Hussein's face on the front page, Dec. 15, 2003.

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Iraqi women look into a shop window in Baghdad, May 16, 2003.

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U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division soldiers view a map of Fallujah during a briefing prior to early morning raids on January 6, 2004 in Camp Voltorno, Iraq. The raids netted four suspects including an Iraqi man suspected of constructing IED's for insurgents.

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A U.S. soldier walks in front of a burning hotel in the center of Baghdad following a car bomb attack that killed at least three people, Jan. 28, 2004.

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People stand at the scene where a car bomb exploded in front of a hotel killing at least three people in Baghdad, Jan. 28, 2004.

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Pipe Major Scott Taylor of The Black Watch plays on the eve of Operation TOBRUK in Camp Dogwood, south of Baghdad, Nov. 24, 2004.

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A relative of an Iraqi prisoner being held by U.S. authorities at the Abu Ghraib prison holds his hand to his face as he is shown a newspaper featuring photos of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners inside the detention center, May 8, 2004.

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A U.S. soldier on the lookout after two suspects opened fire on their convoy in central Baghdad, Jan. 31, 2005.

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Samar Hassan screams after her parents were killed by U.S. soldiers in a shooting in Tal Afar, Iraq, Jan. 18, 2005. The troops fired on the Hassan family car when it unwittingly approached them during a dusk patrol in the tense northern Iraqi town. Parents Hussein and Camila Hassan were killed instantly, and a son Racan, 11, was seriously wounded in the abdomen. Racan, who lost the use of his legs, was treated later in the U.S.

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An Iraqi medic worker cries at the al-Hanifa mosque following clashes in Baghdad, Nov. 19, 2004. Two Iraqis were killed and nine wounded when clashes broke out after Iraqi national guardsmen raided the Sunni mosque in Baghdad's Adhamiya neighborhood following weekly Friday prayers, hospital sources said.

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld answers a question during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Feb. 3, 2005.

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Visitors look at portraits of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq on the first day of the exhibition "To Never Forget: The Faces of the Fallen" in the Shaffer Art Building at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., March 3, 2005.

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Iraqi soldiers stand during a drill in a sandstorm in East Fallujah Iraqi Camp, a base for training Iraqi armed forces, June 11, 2005.

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Illinois State Police prepare to follow protestors as they march during an anti-war demonstration in Chicago, to mark the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, March 18, 2006.

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An Iraqi soldier secures a street in Baghdad, Dec. 13, 2005. Strict security measures were imposed across the war-torn country two days before the general election for a parliament set to restore full sovereignty to their war-battered country and pave the way for the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign troops.

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Maria Carrillo, a resident of Miami, prays over a mock coffin in front of makeshift tombs representing fallen U.S. soldiers in Iraq as she participates in an anti-war rally in downtown Miami, March 19, 2006.

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Young Iraqi ballerinas perform on a Baghdad stage during the opening ceremony of the First Festival for Child Theatre in Iraq, April 1, 2006. The 11-day festival started despite the death of two actors who were to perform in one of the plays in the festival. The festival is dedicated to Iraq children and aims to revive happiness among the children who suffer from the daily bloodshed in their country.

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Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein adjusts his headset as he listens to the first complainant during day two of the Anfal Campaign trial in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, Aug. 22, 2006. The defendants Saddam Hussein and Ali Hasan Al-Majid are charged with genocide. All the defendants are charged with war crimes related to an internal armed conflict, and with war crimes against humanity. All of the charges will relate to the lead-up to and execution of the Anfal Campaign during 1987 and 1988.

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In this screen grab taken from Iraqi national television station Al-iraqia, a video shows the moments leading up to the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as he is prepared for hanging and the noose is put over his head on the gallows, Dec. 30, 2006. The former Iraqi president was executed by hanging in a secure facility in the Northern Baghdad suburb of Khadimeya.

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An Iraqi man watches a U.S. helicopter fly by at sunset in the Khadamiyah neighborhood of Bagdhad, Nov. 30, 2006.

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Activists sit in front of the U.S. Capitol during an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C., Jan. 27, 2006. Thousands of protesters gathered on the National Mall to protest the war in Iraq.

Credit: Brendan Smialowski

U.S. Marines smoke a cigarette alongside a fellow Marine in an Iraqi kitchen after conducting a search operation for insurgents in the early hours of Feb. 1, 2007 in Ramadi in Iraq's Anbar province. American forces often staged raids and patrols at night because of technology that aids the element of surprise and reduces the effectiveness of insurgent snipers on U.S. forces.

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U.S. Army Medics treat a suspected Iraqi Shia insurgent they had shot earlier and tracked by his blood trail in the Gazaliyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Feb. 8, 2007.

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An Iraqi Kurd attends Friday prayers at the Grand Mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk, Nov. 2, 2007.

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Passengers smoke in the pre-dawn hours before boarding a commuter train from the southern neighborhood of Dora to Central Baghdad, Feb. 18, 2009. Iraq under Saddam Hussein had no commuter trains. Since the U.S. invasion traffic has grown nearly untenable in the capital as hundreds of security checkpoints and especially the sealing of main highways crossing the central Green Zone traffic has ground to a halt. The Dora to Central Baghdad route is attractively priced at $1 a ticket versus the average $8 in a taxi and the train conductor will even stop the train for passengers to exit early if they ask.

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Members of the Army 2-1 Cavalry burn brush in Diyala Province, Arab Jabar, Iraq, Feb. 27, 2008. The military burned the brush to deprive insurgents of a hiding place in the volatile village.

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The silhouette of a U.S. soldier appears on a wall as the sun rises during a patrol in Baquba, March 6, 2008.

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U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney delivers remarks to U.S. troops stationed at Balad Air Base during an unannounced visit, March 18, 2008.

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1st Lt. Keith Wolowodiuk hugs his wife Adrienne Wolowodiuk and their 5-month-old baby girl Kaitlyn as more than 100 soldiers of the 1st Battalion 185th Infantry Regiment, Charlie Company return to the Joint Forces Training Base from Baghdad, March 6, 2008 in Los Alamitos, California.

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An Iraqi boy watches as U.S. soldiers patrol through his neighborhood in the restive Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, March 19, 2008.

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U.S. soldiers race out of a Stryker fighting vehicle during a patrol in the restive Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, March 19, 2008.

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U.S. President George W. Bush pauses while speaking at the Pentagon, March 19, 2008. President Bush visited the Pentagon to speak about the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq.

Credit: Brendan Smialowski

Former U.S. Army Sergeant Kristofer Goldsmith (L) listens to fellow members of "Iraq Veterans Against the War" testify before the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Capitol Hill, May 15, 2008. Goldsmith deployed to Iraq in 2005. He said he originally joined the military to kill people but his time in Sadr City, a slum in Baghdad, has since changed his mind. Goldsmith was also denied his GI Bill benefits due to his suicide attempt but Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) promised him during that hearing that those benefits would be restored and that he would go to college.

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A U.S. soldier patrols through the desert as his platoon hunts for caves and tunnels used by insurgents during the launch of Operation Grim Ghost in the deserts of the restive Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad, March 23, 2008.

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U.S. Army soldiers carry shot guns as they walk along a corridor separating what they deem to be the most extreme and dangerous detainees held inside the Camp Bucca detention center located near the Kuwait-Iraq border, May 19, 2008.

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Members of the Iraq War Veterans Against War protest outside the Pepsi Center during the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colo., Aug. 27, 2008.

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A group burial service is held for 14 U.S. soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Oct. 24, 2008. The group burial was held for the 14 U.S. soldiers who died Aug. 22 in Multaka, Iraq, from injuries sustained when their helicopter crashed.

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Members of the Iraqi armed forces parade in the streets of Hilla as part of the ceremony for the official transfer of security files from the U.S. Army to the Iraqi army of the Babil province in Hilla, 120 kms South of Baghdad, Oct. 23, 2008.

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U.S. President-elect Barack Obama (L) and Gulf War veteran Tammy Duckworth bow their heads after placing a wreath to honor America's veterans on Veterans Day at the Bronze Soldiers Memorial in Chicago, Nov. 11, 2008.

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Crosses marking soldiers lost during the war in Iraq are seen at Arlington West on Santa Monica Beach, Calif., Nov. 16, 2008. Each Sunday from sunup to sundown since Feb. 15, 2004, crosses are added to the temporary memorial erected in the sand just north of the pier at Santa Monica Beach by the local chapter of Veterans for Peace (VFP) and other volunteers.

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U.S soldiers walk nearby as school children return home from the al-Fadael elementary school in the Al-Hurriya district north of Baghdadon, March 5, 2009. A group of U.S soldiers attended the reopening of the al-Fadael elementary school after it was repaired from damages suffered during the war.

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Iraqi Kurdish refugees stand outside their tents in the Dezza castle district, 100 miles northeast of the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, May 19, 2009.

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Relatives wave at newly freed Iraqi prisoners following their release by U.S. soldiers in Baghdad, March 19, 2009. Around 120 prisoners were released.

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A U.S. soldier walks alongside an Iraqi police officer during the last joint patrol in Khan Bani Saad, some six miles south of the town of Baquba, as a sandstorm engulfs this northeastern region of the county, June 28, 2009.

Credit: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE

U.S. soldiers applaud for seven of their comrades who were wounded during the war in Iraq during a ceremony at the former palace of executed president Saddam Hussein, part of U.S. Victory Camp in Baghdad, Oct. 11, 2009.

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A crater made by a massive explosion is seen in front of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry next to the Green Zone in Baghdad, Aug. 19, 2009. A series of explosions from truck bombs and a barrage of mortars claimed the lives of at least 75 and left at least 310 people injured.

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Snow-covered headstones in Section 60, the area of Arlington National Cemetery for casualties of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are seen at the cemetery in Arlington, Va, Dec. 22, 2009.

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Lorelei Hutchings (R), a U.S. Air Force veteran of the Iraq War now living in Washington, D.C., shouts during a march calling for an immediate end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on March 20, 2010.

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A sister of 32-year-old slain Iraqi Syriac Catholic priest Taher Saadallah Boutros, known as Father Athir, attends a memorial Sunday Mass in the Lebanese capital Beirut to mourn 46 fellow Christians who were murdered in a church in Baghdad by al Qaida gunmen, Nov. 7, 2010.

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Iraqi riot police stand guard as people protest against corruption, unemployment and poor public services in Baghdad, March 4, 2011.

Soldiers with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment participate in a patrol in Iskandariya, Babil Province, Iraq, July 14, 2011.

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Iraqi Shi'ite Muslims march in a parade marking the month of Muharram in preparation for the festival Ashura in Baghdad, Dec. 1, 2011. Shi'ite festivals were prohibited during the time of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein's rule.

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Lt. Wiley Grant from Muncie, Ind., carries weapons to a shipping container in preparation for leaving Camp Adder as the Army continues to send soldiers and equipment home and the base is prepared to be handed back to the Iraqi government at Camp Adder, near Nasiriyah, Iraq, Dec. 2, 2011.

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U.S. Army soldiers place their bags in overhead bins as they wait for their plane to take off for the flight home to Fort Hood, Texas after being part of one of the last American combat units to exit from Iraq, in Kuwait City, Kuwait, Dec. 16, 2011.

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Men gather in a tea shop in Baghdad's old quarter, Dec. 9, 2011.

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A color guard is seen as U.S. Army soldiers arrive at their home base of Fort Hood, Texas after being part of one of the last American combat units to exit from Iraq, Dec. 16, 2011. The U.S. military formally ended its mission in Iraq after eight years of war and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

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U.S. Army soldiers walk off the plane as they arrive at their home base of Fort Hood, Texas after being part of one of the last American combat units to exit from Iraq on Dec. 16, 2011.

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U.S. Army Sgt. Ed Matayka, 34, a double amputee, walks during a session with physical therapist Melisa Howard at the Center for the Intrepid rehabilitation gym at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio, Texas, on Aug. 7, 2012. Thousands of U.S. military war wounded, most suffering from amputations, burns and functional limb loss in Afghanistan and previously in Iraq, spend months, if not years, in outpatient care at the center.

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Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division salute during a re-enlistment ceremony for Staff Sergeant Brant Smith, from Dothan, Ala., while preparing to depart in the last convoy from Iraq at Camp Adder, now known as Imam Ali Base, Dec. 17, 2011. Around 500 troops ended their presence at Camp Adder, the last remaining American base, and departed in the final American military convoy out of Iraq, arriving into Kuwait in the early morning hours of Dec. 18, 2011.

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A photograph is displayed on a pair of combat boots that are part of the "Eyes Wide Open" exhibit in front of San Francisco City Hall, March 19, 2012. The exhibition includes a pair of boots for every one of the 481 California servicemen and women who died in the Iraq war.

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Ricky Parada sits at the grave of his little brother Cpl. Nicolas D. Paradarodriguez who was killed in Afghanistan, at Section 60 on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery on May 28, 2012 in Arlington, Virginia. Section 60 is reserved for veterans of the Iraq War. For Memorial Day U.S. President Barack Obama is paying tribute to military veterans past and present who have served and sacrificed their lives for their country.

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Iraqi students throw their hats during their graduation ceremony at Technical University of Baghdad, June 30, 2012, to celebrate receiving their degrees for the first time since the U.S.-led war on Iraq in 2003.

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U.S. Army soldiers arrive at their home base of Fort Hood, Texas after being part of one of the last American combat units to exit from Iraq, Dec. 16, 2011.

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The day after Veterans Day, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Luke Parrott touches the headstone of a fellow soldier and friend in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Nov. 12, 2012. A veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Parrott was injured in an IED blast in Baghdad in 2005. Parrott spent time sitting and talking to the graves of the soldiers he knew. "It's as close as we can get to talking anymore," he said.